


The Mighty Nein: Six Inches to the Left

by HistoriaGloria



Series: Six Inches to Left [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: AU - Class Swap, Canon-Typical Violence, DND spells and violence, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Team as Family, based on art, fic with art, ngl had so much fun writing this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-21 11:54:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20693105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HistoriaGloria/pseuds/HistoriaGloria
Summary: The Mighty Nein are certainly an odd bunch. They're colourful and loud and attract attention. But mainly, they're family.





	The Mighty Nein: Six Inches to the Left

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY SO!!  
The absolutely wonderful [Strawberry Fox](https://twitter.com/_StrawberryFox_?s=17) drew incredible art of the Mighty Nein with their classes all jumbled up and I just couldn't stop myself from writing a little bit of insight into how this class change would alter them!
> 
> I really hope you guys enjoy this and please please check out Strawberry's art on twitter or Instagram; it is phenomenal.
> 
> OKAY SO AO3 IS BEING A MOTHERFUCKER AND I CAN'T EMBED THE ART IN THE TEXT SO CLICK HERE TO SEE IT!!: [Strawberry Fox Art](https://twitter.com/_StrawberryFox_/status/1156728392315621376)

Beau knows they’re an odd bunch. They attract attention wherever they go, even in Zadash. Though, she suspects that the attention they draw there is more to do with the riot of colour that is the Mighty Nein rather than their specialities or races. But she keeps her eyes open just in case. She’s perceptive and sharp, traits honed at the Monastery where she trained to be a cleric of Ioun. They had originally had her down to be a monk, but, well, she didn’t like being told what to do. And Ioun was completely right; knowledge was a superior weapon. Beau watches this odd little family, sat in this bar in Zadash as they drink and tease, her own beer forgotten in her hand.

“Okay?” asks Yasha quietly and she looks up at the cleric of the Stormlord with half a smile.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just making sure our losers are.” Yasha gives a soft chuckle, shrugging.

“Ah, the duties of the clerics.”

“Yeah, given this fucking bunch. I swear to Ioun if Caleb tells me he is fine after a battle one more time when I can see the damn blood on his chest, I’m going to punch him.”

“That’s more Caduceus’ forte, is it not?” Yasha suggests, with that light note of teasing in her voice. Beau snorts and looks over to where the monk is sat, his long pink hair braided up behind his head and his whole body leaning slightly on to his staff as he meditates, ignoring the chaos that is Nott, Mollymauk and Jester arguing in front of him.

Beau could never understand how he could mediate like that. She needs the silence of a library or archive to let herself truly be connected to Ioun.

“Another drink?” comes a thickly accented voice from her left. She turns to see Caleb, Frumpkin wrapped around his neck, fast asleep, and his blue eyes glow softly in the firelight.

“Oh, no, I’m good, Cay.” He nods and sits down beside her, folding himself up. Beau would never admit it to anyone but Ioun in the depths of her own mind, but the warlock is like a brother to her. Team human, they joke, but in the end, it is more than that. He frustrates her with his less than careful attitude towards his own safety, but she’ll always been there to patch him back together.

After all, that is her job here. His job is to do crazy things, like read in any language he likes and summon demon monkeys from the Abyss. Yasha huffs on her right side and she tunes into the conversation just in time to hear Nott screech about the importance of pocket bacon, which is something she agrees with wholeheartedly.

“Hey, pocket bacon is good,” she grunts and Jester scowls.

“That is so yucky, Beau! It’s all fluffy and bad!”

“Hey, you eat stale pastries out of your bag all the time,” points out Mollymauk, leaning back against Yasha, lazily casting sparks with his right hand. He’s so flamboyant; in his dress, in his mannerism and even in his spellcasting.

“Molly’s right!” Nott interjects, leaning on her axe as she stands on her chair to really make her point. Beau is always amused by people who underestimate the little goblin. She might be 3’4, but she’s all rage and fury and not much gets past her alive.

Fjord sighs, sat opposite Beau across the table, his scarred hands coiled around a mug of ale. Alone, he tends to attract the most attention. He's a half-orc, stocky but not tall but it's the scars that makes people pause. The thousands of little white marks that trace up and down his arms and across his neck often worry passers-by, but they would have a lot more cause for concern if they saw him in battle.

“Jessie, it’s fine,” he says, his accent as proper as ever. “We just disagree with them on this one.” Jester pouts, folding her arms.

“Well, the Traveller thinks I'm right! Who wants another drink?” She is as cheery as ever and Beau wonders what mischief those quick fingers are going to get into at the bar. Jester is their lucky charm, she thinks. The tiefling is as fast as lightning, able to lie her way out of anything and an adept magician to boot. But she also gets them into more scrapes than anything when her teasing goes too far, or her light fingers aren't quick enough.

But, and by Ioun, she wouldn't admit it, Beau knows she'd throw herself into any scrape for this group of idiots.

“What are we doing tomorrow?” asks Caleb quietly from her left side. She turns to the warlock, who has his notebook open and is sketching images of catnip, like the flowers which sit softly in his red hair.

“Uh, dealing with some creatures outside the city for a bit of coin, right?” suggests Molly, looking over at them.

“Oh yeah. I think its Abyssal, honestly which is why I wanted to take the shit from the Gentleman,” Beau replies, reaching for her own notebook. “Yeah, here it is, large skeletal creatures with black horns and long claws. Now, I'm no expert but I had a quick chat with Ioun and I reckon they're babau from the Abyss.”

“Portals, just like in Xhorhas?” asks Yasha quietly and Fjord nods grimly.

“Think so. We knew they were opening on both sides of this war.”

“They are harming villagers. That shouldn't be allowed,” rumbles Caduceus, his eyes opening slowly.

“Nice to see you're with us, Deucey,” teases Beau. “But you're right. We should deal with them.”

“Mmm, Abyssal creatures are annoying,” mutters Mollymauk, spinning lightning across his fingertips. “Not sure how much use I can be. A lot of my offensive spells will be... less helpful.”

“Yeah, I remember with that big fucker with the wings and horns,” grunts Beau. “Back in Assarius.” A collective shudder goes through the group and Molly curls back into Yasha. Both him and Caleb had been beaten into a pulp that battle and it had taken a pained and desperate prayer to Ioun to make sure that Caleb returned to them.

Jester bounds back over and Beau wonders how many people now have tiny dick statues in their pockets.

“What's up?”

“Beau thinks we're dealing with more demons,” grunts Fjord and Jester's face falls.

“Ah, tomorrow? Okay.”

“They have to be stopped,” says Yasha, her voice as level as ever.

“I'm always in,” says Nott, patting her trusty battleaxe with a feral grin.

“We're all in,” Molly says, sitting upright. “We just need to be careful. The last few lots of demons have been... difficult. I mean, that minotaur demon thing almost killed me and did very briefly kill Caleb. And those fly things fucked Fjord up big time.”

“Blood sucking demons verses requirements to bleed for magic is... bad,” Fjord mutters, more to himself than to anyone else. Beau winces. They had been lucky that Yasha had prepared Greater Restoration because she hadn't for that battle.

“We'll be careful,” Jester says, seriously. “We can plan an ambush. I'm always better when they don't see me.”

“And if we do that, we can bring some heavy firepower,” Caleb says, petting Frumpkin on the head. Beau has never heard of a warlock with such a close connection to their patron, but the way Frumpkin's eyes glow when he looks at them or the idle way he twists parts of reality to his whims puts no doubt in her mind that he is the archfey Caleb claims.

“Okay, so what?” huffs Nott, always ready for action. “We go early and scope it out first?”

“Sounds good,” rumbles Caduceus, sitting forward. “Send in the quieter ones, Jester, myself and Mollymauk with his invisibility to find the source, then we report back.”

“I can make you invisible as well as me,” says Molly, shrugging. “Give us all a bonus.”

“Okay, but what if you get lost? Or shit goes wrong as it always does? Molly, you have that spell right?” Beau challenges. Mollymauk nods.

“Mhm, Message. Stay close-ish and I'll contact Caleb or Beau because they can get in the fastest, right?”

“Oh, ja, Thunderstep. And you have?”

“Dimension Door,” grunts Beau.

“That leaves us one over though,” says Yasha softly. “Dimension Door can take 2 people, as can Thunderstep.”

“Shit yeah,” Nott says. “But I can run pretty fucking fast.”

“And I can wolf up if I need to defend myself,” points out Fjord.

“Or I can also prepare Dimesion Door,” says Yasha with the twinkle in her eyes that means she's teasing. Fjord chuckles and Nott rolls her eyes.

“This is the most prepared we've been for literally anything,” says Molly, sounding a little incredulous.

“Yeah, we're not known for great plans,” says Jester.

“Think we might, uh,” Beau mutters. “Be a little more wary about demons now after our last few attempts.” They fall quiet for a moment and then Fjord stands.

“Well, I'm going to get an early night. See you at dawn, I guess.”

“Yes, I shall head to bed too,” says Caduceus. Quiet 'goodnight's are exchanged as Cad, Fjord, Jester and Nott all head up to bed.

“Think I'm gonna, ah, entertain a bit,” says Molly, producing his tarot cards from thin air with a flick of his wrist.

“Don't start any fights,” mutters Yasha as the tiefling gets up.

“Try not to, dearest!” he laughs as he swoops over to the other side of the bar to con and dazzle some townsfolk. Yasha sighs, leaning slightly against Beau.

“You good?” Beau asks quietly and Yasha nods.

“Yeah. Just sometimes when we plan, I remember how close we have been to losing each other.” Beau nods, looking down. There had been some very close calls.

_Lorenzo, crushing Mollymauk into the ground, the wizard's body broken and shattered and Beau had never cast Revivify before but she skids to her knees beside him and begs Ioun, no no no he can't leave! Caleb faces down the slaver, hands shaking with fury and power, Frumpkin giving him such a frightening visage._

_The demon in the well, throwing Nott aside like a piece of meat before bearing down on Jester, not hidden and already badly wounded from the Ice Storm gone awry as the succubi had got into Mollymauk's head._

_The Laughing Hand, giggling as Fjord, in full werewolf form, stands bleeding before him, his ear practically torn clean off, muzzle covered in blood and his claws pulsing with weak ice crystals. Yasha stands, holding her head as she howls out to the Stormlord to protect her from the wills of Oban. _

_Caleb staring blankly into the distance, completely lost in his own head watching gnolls burn at the hands of Mollymauk. Molly sticks to lightning based spells after that and doubly so after Caleb tells them about his family and the fire and Trent Ikithon and his inability to use learned magic anymore. _

_Nott screaming at Caleb, fury all placed wrong, 'your people did this to my people', until Caduceus steps between them, his pose not quite threatening but not quite relaxed either._

“Are you okay, Beau?” asks Caleb quietly and she blinks.

“Yeah, yeah. Just thinking.”

“Don't strain yourself,” teases the Zemnian and she gives him a good-natured shove.

“Fuck off, Cay.” He chuckles in response, looking back down at his book.

“You should rest,” says Yasha. “I know you'll sit up for an hour anyway reading.” Beau sighs, placing her hand on the newest book she has found and promised to give to Caleb once she's done.

“Yeah, yeah, alright. You comin, Yash?” Yasha looks over at Mollymauk who is playfully exciting a small crowd with his penchant for illusion magic.

“I will stay,” Caleb says, before Yasha can speak. “I will look after him.” Yasha nods and gets up.

“I trust you. Let's go rest.” And they head upstairs together.

* * *

The Mighty Nein wake at dawn.

Mollymauk is less than pleased about this after his late-night entertaining folk. Caleb had pulled him away when it had reached the early hours of the morning, spinning a little of his oft hidden but patented charm to calm the crowd. Easy smile and a comforting accent as he led the exhausted wizard up to bed.

And now he lies on that bed, listening to Caleb shuffle around, dressing in his armour.

“Cayyyleb...” he whines and gets a chuckle out of the warlock.

“Ja, Mollymauk?”

“Why do we have to be up so early?”

“You know why, come along, schatz.”

Finally, he pulls himself out of bed and into his robes, patting down the pockets. Components, check. Dagger that he is shit at using, check. Tarot cards, check. Spell books, check. Molly rarely reads for fun; learning to be a new person didn't exactly help his literacy. He can read, of course he can, or he'd be a really shitty wizard, but he focuses his reading on new spells. Arcane reading is so much easier and Gustav had suggested that perhaps Common was not his first language, causing the difficulty in reading it. Arcana is easier to read; the runes just make sense. Completely unlike Caleb or Beau, who don't have to study their magic but enjoy learning more generally.

Finally, Molly turns to Caleb, who is brushing his hair carefully. It's so long now, long enough that he braids it every morning and then Frumpkin wills little catnip flowers into existence in the braid.

“Ready?” asks Caleb and Molly shrugs.

“As I'll ever be.” And together they head down to meet the rest of the Nein. Breakfast is a quiet affair, with most of them barely awake for their usual barbs and jabs.

“So, what’s the plan?” asks Jester, looking up from her muffin.

“Uh, we go in first,” says Molly, gesturing to himself, Jester and Caduceus. “And try to find the portal, right? What do we know about this place?” Beau grunts, opening up a little notebook.

“Uh, according to the Gentleman, there has been demonic activity in one of his overland routes, about 5 miles outside of Zadash, near one of the outer farmlands. The smuggling route goes through the homesteads and has been fucked up by demons. The Crownsguard confirmed that people in the farmlands had been killed. So, we’re going to go out to these homesteads and Caleb and Fjord are going to be fucking charismatic motherfuckers and get a pinpoint location. Then you sneaky lot, are going to go in and try and find the portal or any monsters. Once you got it, message Caleb or me and we’ll all bamf! over to you and fuck shit up generally.”

“That’s a fucking good plan,” mutters Nott over her bacon.

“Yeah,” agrees Molly, blinking a little. “And I’m making me and Cad invisible right?”

“Yeah, I can make myself invisible!” Jester chirps happily, too bright for the early morning.

“Got it. Shall we get the horses and move out?” suggests Fjord, scratching roughly behind his ear as he is wont to do when tired.

“Sounds good,” says Caduceus easily, stretching out his long form.

“Onwards!” cheers Jester and the Mighty Nein move out.

* * *

The ride is peaceful, with few people being out this early and Jester and Nott still not awake enough to pull any pranks yet. They reach the homesteads just as people are starting to go about their morning and Fjord and Caleb slip down from their horses.

“Good morning!” Fjord calls and some people look up and two human farmhands come over, tightly gripping their farming tools.

“Hello,” says one, voice cold and Molly twitches, mentally running over the necessary components for a Suggestion or Charm Person spell. “What are you doing out here so early?”

“We have been sent by interested parties to deal with the issues you have been having with demonic entities?” Caleb says, his voice calm and low.

“Don’t know who’d that be, sending such a… monstrous group into a quiet area like this.” Mollymauk can see Fjord flinch visibly and watches as Jester and Nott deflate, trying to hide.

“Now, now, we’re just here to help,” Fjord tries but the farmhand just sneers at him.

“Shut it, half-breed.” And Fjord twitches. Caleb’s expression grows dark and cricks his neck as the shadows appear to crawl up his body and his eyes glow an unearthly blue. Frumpkin hisses, low and insidious from his shoulder.

“Apologise to my friends and tell us about these demons, or you will be the ones we slay first,” he says, voice dripping with malice. His voice is deeper, somehow doubled like a rapid echo and Mollymauk feels a tug of fear in his gut, instinctive.

Both farmhands look terrified and scramble backwards.

“Sorry! I’m sorry!” babbles the one who had been talking to them. “I, uh, the last house on the row! It’s been abandoned since Thursday when these creatures killed everyone inside, please, I’m sorry.”

“You better be,” hisses the warlock, before turning and saddling back up. “Let’s go.”

The Nein don’t need telling twice and head towards the indicated home as the aura slowly fades from Caleb.

“Uh, thanks, Caleb,” mutters Fjord and Molly can’t help but notice most of the Nein, including himself, echoing that statement.

“They don’t get to talk about my friends like that,” huffs the Zemnian, scratching Frumpkin behind the ears. “No one does.” Molly gives just a small smile. Caleb’s power lies so much in his ability to harness the unearthly but that was definitely a show he hadn’t been expecting.

The house they were searching for is apparent almost immediately. The last cottage is destroyed. The door is smashed, the roof is missing tiles and there are piles of furniture in front of the door, as though to keep in something.

“Well,” says Jester, patting her horse. “Here we are?”

“We will stay here, across the road in this area so as to keep a look out,” Caleb says as they all dismount a good distance from the house. “Stay in contact.”

“You got it,” Mollymauk says, wrapping his copper wire around his wrist easily. “Alright, Jester, Deuces, let’s do this.” With an unnecessary flourish, Molly casts Invisibility on himself and Caduceus as Jester does the same for herself and the three of them vanish. There is a moment of panicked grabbing, until they manage to find each other and then they head towards the house, quiet and slow.

Investigating the house is slow going, but not difficult. They slip in through the window rather than the blocked-up door and split up, quietly creeping around the house; Jester upstairs, Caduceus on the ground floor and Molly down into the cellar. As he creeps down the steps, all the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he realises that he has found something.

The cellar appears to have been a grain store, but it is trashed. And inside, there are lots of small flying creatures that Molly recognised as quasits. He stays very still but they don’t see to notice him, focusing on what appears to be a rift across the room, shouting and yelling in Abyssal. As cautiously as he can, he slips into a hiding spot behind the piled-up barrels and presses the copper wire to his lips. This will break his invisibility, but not Caduceus’s as long as he concentrates. He thinks of Caleb and whispers,

“Found it. Basement, full of quasits. Enter carefully.”

“Copy that, Mollymauk,” comes Caleb’s response. And immediately, Molly looks upstairs and relays the same message to first Jester, then Caduceus and gets a similar response from them. In the seconds before the rest of the Nein arrive, Molly watches as the quasits swarm away from the portal as two tall, skeletal creatures with odd, long bone crests exit out the portal, flanking a vulture-like demon. And then another set.

Shit, Mollymauk thinks before there is several flashes of light and the Mighty Nein appear around him.

The battle is on.

* * *

Fjord had been expecting it to be rough, but being stood outside then grabbed by a Caleb yelling,

“Basement, now, let’s go!” before there is a crack and they are there, is a little much. And as soon as they are there, there is a small army of demons moving out of the open portal. Beau and Nott appear beside him a split-second later, and Yasha on the other side. There is almost a freeze-frame of completely incredibility, as the demons stare at the group that have just appeared, but that is soon shattered as Caleb reaches one hand up and growls,

“**_Barlgura!” _**as he tears a hole in space and time thrusting from it yet another demon.

And then, everything is chaos.

Fjord lets himself change, his ears growing longer, his teeth becoming sharper and his claws growing in as he howls, falchion in his right hand and extended claws coiled. And then, with a quick nick to his neck, his claws glow with ice and his falchion crackles with electricity.

A quasit flies straight for him and he tears the creature in two with one slash of his falchion, before leaping directly towards the demons ahead.

“Destroy the demons, I’ve got the port-unk!” Beau shouts, jumping forward, only to be slashed across the chest by one of the demons she had described as a babau in their briefing. Before he can rush to help her, she grabs it by the throat and her holy symbol glows as necrotic energy pulses through her arm.

Behind him, Fjord hears the _thwump _of a staff and turns to see a newly visible Caduceus Clay bash a quasit straight out of existence with his staff and then spin to jab another through the throat.

“Got your back,” he rumbles pleasantly and Fjord grins with his fangs, flipping over his falchion to dive after the babau on Beau. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees purple and silver lightning arc past him, hitting one of the demons and at the back of the room is Mollymauk, his hands up, channelling the spell. Fjord’s hits are not as clean with his rites and the lightning doesn’t do as much damage as he had hoped, but they knew that Abyssal creatures are difficult to kill.

But not impossible.

He rounds on a babau as it is hit with a brilliant white beam of energy by Yasha, making it easier for Fjord to strike straight for the throat with his frozen falchion, taking the creature’s head clean off.

“Leave some for me!” howls Nott and Fjord sidesteps with a smirk as the tiny barbarian barrels past him, her pupils narrowed with blood-rage as she swings her axe viciously up at the other babau, getting its attention instantly.

Fjord hears a cry of pain and turns to see Caleb, clutching his side as the vulture-demon claws him, his barlgura protecting Beau as she struggles to get to the portal as babau continue to pour from it. He storms over, tearing into the vulture-demon with his claws and falchion, before hissing in its face, cursing it to feel any damage that Fjord himself takes.

Which works, as the vulture-demon then rakes it claws down Fjord’s chest, opening a similar wound on its own body.

“Eldritch Blast!” hisses Caleb from behind the creature as two bright blue glowing spheres of force slam into the vulture-demon, followed immediately by a peppering of shortbow bolts into its throat and Fjord catches a glimpse of Jester, peeking out from over an overturned crate, her shortbow trained on the demon.

But it only seems to anger the vulture who slams its beak into Fjord and talons into Caleb, making the warlock cry out in agony.

“Lost control of the barlgura,” hisses Caleb as he tears himself free from the vulture-demon, and Fjord grunts.

“I’ll go to Beau, help Molly,” he replies, waving to their wizard who has been blocked into a corner, his hands crackling with lightning. Caleb nods and Fjord bolts first, feeling the vulture-demon claw him again, but it lets Caleb escape unhindered. Yasha growls at it from across the room and flings out a hand, firing off a brightly glowing bolt of energy which knocks the demon back and she fires again, incinerating it completely. Fjord can see Beau, hunkered down near-ish the portal as the barlgura attempts to swing at the babau, but it’s likely only a matter of time before that huge demon monkey turns on them. Nott comes screaming past, covered in demon blood as she swings her adamantine axe around her head, attacking any creature that gets near her. She barrels straight for the barlgura which turns to hit her, and the battle is on there.

But they’re still coming from the portal.

“Caduceus!” Fjord yells and the monk spins, channelling his ki to unleash a blast of fire from his hands at a nearby quasit.

“Yes?”

“Come, with me to Beau, we need clear a path so she can shut the portal!” Caduceus nods and moves with all the speed of a monk, running straight towards the centre of the demons, dodging attacks without a second thought. And Fjord throws himself straight in, howling out his own battle cry as he slashes and claws his way through.

He and Caduceus fight back to back, the monk throwing punch after punch, crushing the throats of demons as Fjord slices them open and curses them to bleed from the eyes. Occasionally, a demon turns to him, only to fall down dead, shortbow bolt in its neck, or smoking eldritch blast in the back of its head. But they’re not invincible and fighting this close means they take the damage too.

Beau hurries up to them, bloodied and battered, but clutching her clerical symbol.

“I just need a second!” she yells, waving to the portal, not thirty feet from them, with demons reaching out to claw them.

“Go!” Fjord howls, thrusting his falchion through a babau behind her. And Beau holds out her symbol of Ioun and mutters something under her breath, before shouting,

“Fuck off!” And the fabric of reality flickers and then repairs itself. Unwisely, Fjord takes this second to spin to Beau and congratulate her when a talon spears him from behind.

The pain is immense, but Fjord fights using his own pain. He turns and sinks his teeth viciously into the creature, but he can feel his grip on humanity slipping until he gets a slap on the side of the head.

“Focus up, Fjord, no going full wolfie on me!” Beau. He feels the healing magic wash through him, and he releases the demon, to just stab it normally. He can hear Caduceus’ panting beside him, breaths wheezy and pained, but the monk continues to fight, twisting a babau’s head backwards before letting the creature collapse to the ground.

Slowly, slowly… the battle begins to quieten down and Fjord glances around. He can’t see Jester, but that’s usual for their rogue. Demons keep popping up with shortbow arrows in their chest, so he isn’t worried. Nott is blood-covered, but it mainly looks like demon blood, black and thick across her body. Yasha is unconscious at the side, with Caleb stood over her, his hands glowing with power and an unearthly fey-like presence to his entire being. Mollymauk is safe from demons, but he is slumped over a chest, red eyes blinking woozily.

“GAAARH!” Nott yells as she cuts the last of the demons to pieces and there is quiet. Fjord lets his rites drop, slumping to his knees as he holds his chest.

“Fuck,” says Jester, standing up next to Mollymauk who gives a slightly hysterical laugh.

“Yasha?” asks the wizard weakly from across the room.

“I’ve got her,” says Beau, limping over and slapping her face gently a couple of times. Fjord knows her well enough to know that there is healing magic in those slaps and sure enough, their other cleric blinks and sits up.

“Well, that was unpleasant,” says Caduceus conversationally, before his legs give way and he topples into Fjord who is still trying to get the world to stop spinning.

“Oh, shit, fuck, Yasha, you got anything?” curses Beau as she looks over at the group, with only Nott, herself and Jester looking like they could actually walk.

“Yes, one moment,” Yasha says and straightens up to begin casting a spell. Caleb’s aura fades and he wobbles over to Fjord and Cad in the centre of the room as Jester helps Molly to join them.

And the Mighty Nein sit there, covered in guts and gore from themselves and also the Abyssal demons they have just destroyed as Yasha takes ten minutes to cast a warm healing spell.

“Well, that’s another portal closed,” says Beau’s conversationally and Caleb laughs faintly, his head resting on Fjord’s chest and the bloodhunter notices that his catnip flower crown has been destroyed by all the demon blood in his hair.

“Almost killed us,” says Molly from his other side, barely conscious.

“Nnnmm,” says Caduceus. “We’re not dead yet.”

“Think we could get back to Zadash like this?” asks Nott, looking at the several collapsed members of the party.

“Can always put up the dome,” Molly mumbles, but he seems fairly tired to be casting spells. “Or teleport us to Rosanna?”

“Why would we go there?” asks Caleb faintly.

“Dunno, just givin’ options. An’ I lied. Haven’t got the spells for either of those.”

“It’s not a long ride,” Yasha says, but she is slumped over Molly’s legs.

“We need to rest. All of us,” says Beau, leaning heavily on her own staff. “But we should go back to Zadash. Here, I’ve got a little left.” She mutters something and Fjord feels a burst of healing magic. “Enough to get you back on your feet?”

“Yeah, yeah,” says Molly, making no attempt to move. Jester chuckles and helps Mollymauk back up to his feet.

And slowly, bloodied and beaten, the Mighty Nein limp out of the room. A group of rag-tag misfits with all kinds of power, yet again, successful.

* * *

Yasha dislikes the ride back to Zadash. Everything aches and she’s completely tapped for spells, like all of the spellcasters, except maybe Molly at a low level. The ride is quiet, filled only with the muttering of Jester and Nott at the front and the quiet, subdued sounds of pain from them all, especially Fjord and Caduceus who are both covered in blood.

They stumble back to the inn, where upon Beau grunts,

“Me and Nott’ll go talk to the Gentleman. You lot stay here and don’t bleed out whilst I’m gone!” Mollymauk gives her a thumbs up and then the middle finger as he lays his head out on a table. Yasha snickers.

“I’ll make sure they don’t,” she says gently. Beau nods and she, Nott and Jester (who seems excited to see the man she calls her father) leave. Yasha looks over the battered members of the party. Fjord is no longer in his wolf form, but he’s still sluggishly bleeding from his ears and nose, likely from his own blood maledict. Caleb looks woozy and exhausted, his hands shaking bad enough that Frumpkin continues to press against him insistently, as though reassuring the human whom he has made a deal with. Caduceus’s pink eyes are open, but he looks distant, his left arm wrapped around his midsection and the warm green robes do nothing to hide the blood there. Mollymauk is face down on the table and if it weren’t for the stuttering shift of his shoulders as he breathes, Yasha would be very concerned.

She is wounded herself. Despite the full armour she wears, the demons had managed to pierce her chest and whilst she is stable, she can feel the slow, sluggish drip of blood from a wound in her shoulder.

“Drink?” she asks, her voice rough with pain and gets an affirmative hum from Caleb, Fjord and Molly.

“Tea, please?” Caduceus requests and his usual rumbling timbre is even lower.

“Strongest thing they’ve got?” asks Fjord, touching his ears experimentally. Yasha nods, cracking a weak smile and heads over to the bar, where the innkeeper is more than happy to oblige. Yasha thinks that they feel bad for them, considering their bloody nature. She brings over 4 glasses of the strongest whiskey the bar had and one mug of tea for Caduceus.

And so, they sit there, quietly, waiting for the others to return.

It only takes about half an hour before they are back, looking happy. Yasha looks up from where she is currently petting Mollymauk’s hair to get the wizard to fall asleep.

“Oh, they’re back.” Molly sits up in her lap as she shifts, making Caleb whine as he can’t use her as a pillow anymore.

“Hey,” grunts Beau, sitting down next to Caduceus who blinks owlishly at her. “Good payout. But… I dunno. Doesn’t seem good enough for the beating we took.”

“Eh, we knew what we were in for,” mutters Fjord, his yellow eyes hooded with exhaustion. “Give me the money and then I’m going to pass out for eleven hours.”

“Fuckin’ same,” whines Molly, reaching out as Beau hands over their money from the Gentleman. “My head feels like… well, like a babau stabbed me, which is just the damn truth.”

“We’re all still alive,” Yasha reminds him gently and Molly chuckles.

“By the graces of the damn gods. Night all.”

“It’s like midday,” protests Jester but Molly just snorts.

“I do not care what time it is; I am going to lie on my bed until everything stops hurting,” Caleb says, rubbing at the gunk in his hair.

“We all need to go to bathhouse!” tries the rogue again, but Caduceus shakes his head.

“Tomorrow, Jester. At this rate, myself, Fjord, Molly and Caleb will collapse before we get there and Beau does not have any spell slots left to revive us.”

“So, we’re gonna go to bed,” Molly says and gets up. “See you for dinner.”

Caduceus, Caleb and Fjord don’t need any prodding and within seconds, they’ve all headed upstairs.

“They’re no fun,” whines Jester but Beau huffs, seeming more serious than usual.

“They were fucking lucky to make it out alive. All of them,” she says, toying with the symbol of Ioun on her staff.

“We all were,” says Yasha quietly and Jester goes quiet. Nott nods, tugging on her ear. Yasha knows she will be worried about Caleb, who’s power lies in staying far from the battle and slinging his blasts of eldritch power. Her own lies in getting up close and fighting with such reckless abandon that nothing can destroy her.

“We are all still here, though,” Yasha says, holding up her drink. “That is something to be celebrated.”

“Fuckin, cheers to that,” Beau agrees, and Nott hops up on her chair to knock her flask into Yasha’s glass.

“Yeah, I’ll drink to that,” she says before downing a big swig. The girls only sit downstairs for a little while before retiring themselves, needing the day to just recuperate, as they all do.

The Mighty Nein meet back up for dinner, less bloody, less exhausted and more together.

And, to anyone in the bar, they are quite the sight. The eight idiots, teasing and joking over a hot meal.

A family.

Family can sometimes be a wizard with amnesia; a goblin with murderous rage; a tiefling with a light giggle and even lighter fingers; a werewolf with scarred green skin; a warlock with his own archfey as a familiar; a cleric who reads more than the wizard; an aasimar with as much healing as hurting and a firbolg who will break your nose whilst lecturing you about the uses of moss.

And sometimes, that is how it is.

**Author's Note:**

> yeah so I was going to be like uhhh Mollymauk AND Caduceus because I said so but then I realised that Molly likely wouldn't have died if Beau was the cleric because she would have been able to cast Revivify at that level. 
> 
> Just so you know as well, the classes:  
Fjord: Bloodhunter, Order of the Lycan  
Jester: Rogue, Arcane Trickster  
Caduceus: Monk, Order of the Sun Soul  
Nott: Barbarian, Path of the Beserker  
Caleb: Warlock, Pact of the Archfey  
Beauregard: Cleric, Knowledge Domain (Ioun, the Knowing Mistress)  
Mollymauk: Wizard, School of Enchantment  
Yasha: Cleric, Tempest Domain (Kord, the Stormlord)


End file.
